The worrying bit is that these manufacturing units are low-investment industries that have the potential to employ a very large number of semi-skilled labour .Jayashree Nandi | TNN | March 05, 2016, 17:26 IST

NEW DELHI: India's solar manufacturing industry is likely to be in the pits and thousands of job opportunities lost, thanks to a recent World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruling. Solar module manufacturers are extremely concerned about the WTO decision against India's domestic content requirements (DCR) for the national solar mission, which aims to install 100 gigawatt by 2022.

The worrying bit is also that these module-manufacturing units are low-investment industries that have the potential to employ a very large number of semi-skilled labour . Interestingly , the manual solar module-making units employ a lot of women because of their soldering skills. About three years after the US approached the WTO against India's DCR because it will affect their trade interests, the WTO panel ruled against India's contentions last month. TOI spoke to solar manufacturers and industry associations based in NCR about the impact of the WTO ruling.

"It's very bad news for the Indian solar industry. If the opportunity to manufacture panels and cells for the 100-giga watt mission is lost, then we are probably losing business worth a$100 billion. We are just letting other countries have it. These are smallto medium-sized industries that can be easily set up and the manual units employ a large number of women," said Ajayprakash Shrivastava, president of Solar Energy Society of India (SESI) and who runs a manufacturing company . In his manual unit alone, 60 out of 80 employees were women till recently . "They are better at soldering so they are preferred," he added.

Manufacturers also question how "Make in India" will happen if important sectors like these are pushed back."The ruling is having a reverse effect on startups in the sector .From being one of the most attractive, it hast lost its sheen. We will support the government in whichever way possible to fight this out," added Prafulla Pathak, secretary general of SESI.

Some manufacturers say the US moved against India's DCR because the wes tern country is one of the biggest manufacturers of the thin film technology as opposed to the crystalline technology. Randeep Bora, who represents a solar developer, said ruling may affect investments of large Chinese companies in the manufacturing sector.

"It was about to become one of the most attractive job sectors. The small ones at least employ 50 to 60 people. Usually , the 250-300 watt-sized panels are machine-made. The smaller ones are manual," said another manufacturer . Pankaj Gupta, also a manufacturer , said, "We are already paying import duties for panels, now this decision makes it worse." The WTO ruling also comes as a setback to fighting climate change. Pujarini Sen, campaigner , Greenpeace India, said, "India's setting of the DCR was based on a worthy core principle: Increasing economic opportunities and creating thousands of green jobs while taking critically important steps in the global fight against climate change."

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